Brexit Battle Continues

Rory King, Staff Writer

On June 23, 2016, the Brexit national referendum suggested by then-Prime Minister David Cameron took place and the results shook the country, and the rest of the world. Britain had voted to leave the European Union, the multinational political and economic alliance in Europe, that was formed after World War II. The union allows its member states to trade and its people to move across borders freely, and they also negotiate international agreements as a block.

Although Brexit seemed to occur suddenly to us in the United States, it had actually been brewing in the U.K. for quite some time. A major part of the European Union is how it makes migration between the nations very easy. Leading up to Brexit, tensions over terrorist attacks from groups such as ISIS were very high around the world after horrific events around Europe. There was a huge fear of attacks in Europe and it was causing a growing anti-immigrant sentiment. A week before the referendum, a Member of the British Parliament (MP) named Jo Cox was killed by a far-right terrorist who believed in “Britain First.” Cox was a member of the Labour Party, a left-wing party in Britain, and was against Britain leaving the European Union. Her death signified how high immigration tensions had risen. Despite the whole country sympathizing for the MP’s death, they still went ahead and voted against what she had strongly campaigned for.

Right after the vote, David Cameron stepped down as Prime Minister and that post was soon filled by conservative Theresa May, who is now pro-Brexit. The process then began for Britain to negotiate their separation from the European Union. That process is still going on though a deal has been reached in principle. The deal however was widely opposed and caused a no-confidence vote from Prime Minister May’s own party. The vote would have removed the Prime Minister from office. However, she survived the vote but with a catch. The Prime Minister agreed to not run for reelection, leaving her in for the remainder of the Brexit negotiations.

On March 29, 2017, Theresa May and Britain enacted Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon giving them exactly two years to negotiate a deal to leave the E.U. This deal would include how the new trade relations would work between Britain and the 27 countries it was leaving behind in the European Union.

As noted earlier on, the deal reached in principle by Theresa May was widely opposed. It was seen by many who support Brexit as too pro-Europe while many who prefer to remain in the EU would like a second referendum. A vote on the 15th of January rejected Prime Minister May’s deal comprehensively and has added further turmoil to the situation. Time is running out for Britain to reach a deal as it has been written into British law that they will leave March 29, 2019.

If no deal is reached, it will result in a hard Brexit, Britain leaving the European Union without a deal. A hard Brexit with absolutely no deal would cause a backup of all the goods coming in and out of Britain leading to factories having to shut down and fresh food and medicine would even become difficult to obtain as the British economy would suffer huge set backs with their ports backed up.

However far away Britain may seem, the world’s economy is fairly intertwined in today’s global markets. The United States and Britain have, for a long time now, been great allies and major world powers whose economies are interdependent. It is important to be aware of the status of the Brexit negotiations as they draw to a close as they could have a very serious impact on more than just Britain’s economic status.